Opponents of Yemen's Saleh establish coalition, demand ouster

Mohammed al Qadhi

Last Updated: Apr 19, 2011

SANA'A // A day after Yemen's opposition met with GCC members to discuss an end to the country's turmoil, hundreds of thousands of protesters marched to insist that the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh is the only option.
Meeting on Sunday in Riyadh, opposition members discussed with regional mediators a GCC proposal in which Mr Saleh would transfer power to his deputy and receive immunity from prosecution. The opposition called for Mr Saleh to step down at once and asked the GCC for clarification on the immunity guarantee.
Yesterday in Sana's, several top figures and lawmakers - many of them defectors from Mr Saleh's ruling Congress Party - set up their own political coalition, entitled "Justice and Construction Bloc" and issued a statement insisting that Mr Saleh relinquish power.
US-educated Mohammed Abulahoum, who is also a leader of the powerful Bakeel tribe, the second-largest tribe in Yemen, was among the founding members. Khaled al-Wazeer, who was transport minister before he defected, was also among the party's founders.
Sultan al Atwani, an opposition leader, told reporters in Riyadh after the meeting that the protesters support the GCC initiative "but we reject the paragraph that was issued in the final statement … which refers to the transfer of powers of the president. We demand the resignation of the president."
He said there was no discussion of the immunity proposal, and that more work needs to be done on the details of the proposal.Continued